Lucky Number Eight
by DancinThroughLife
Summary: In the world after the fiasco of the Sokovia Accords, the splintered Avengers have to find a way to continue their lives. On a routine recon mission to a Hydra base, the remaining members of Team Cap find a bloody massacre in the basement and ten cryo pods. Who is Number 8 and what is her connection to the still frozen Bucky Barnes? (Re-write of previous story 'Eight')
1. Introduction: The World So Far

**DISCLAIMER - I don't own anything Marvel….if I did, well...there'd be some changes. I only own Vosem and anything you don't recognize. Unfortunately, this disclaimer does not include ownership of Bucky...**

 **A/N - So this is going to be a semi-reworking of my sotry "Eight". I didn't really flesh that one out before I started it, so I'm reimagining the plot and character, pulling pieces from the original and working in a new point of view. I've always loved Clint and his fatherly persona & really wanted to give him a chance to have some fun. This will likely evolve into a Bucky/OC story :)**

 **Introduction**

It had been 6 months since Clint Barton had let down his kids by missing their water skiing trip...

It had been 4 months since Steve had found his way onto the R.A.F.T. ship and freed his friends...

It had been 1 month since Clint had been home, relishing in the hugs and kisses of his family...

Once the rest of the Avengers had found out about his secret family, they each had their own set of questions. But the one thing none of them could ever find fault with was his willingness to leave all of his Avenging behind to protect his family. By introducing them to his superhero friends, he had added his family to their long list of people they would all die to protect.

This wasn't a new concept to Clint - suffering and being willing to die for his friends and family. He had suffered as a child trying to protect his brother when they traveled with circus. He had suffered when he fought to bring Natasha into SHIELD when he was tasked with taking her out all those years ago. He had been willing to die to protect the boy in Sokovia when Ultron threatened to destroy the world. He had been willing to suffer to protect his friends from the Accords. Clint Barton very rarely put himself ahead of anyone he cared about.

It was this willingness to sacrifice himself so that others wouldn't have to, that lead him to his choice to bring Nat into SHIELD. In that moment, when he gave her the choice to come with him or die, he saw something in her eyes that he had hoped to never see again. He saw a loneliness that lived deep inside the soul of the young redhead, who was wearing a brunette wig at the time. He saw a hopelessness that only came from being alone and relying solely on oneself to survive. He had seen a glimmer of that inside of Wanda when they met and watched it grow after Pietro sacrificed himself to protect Clint in Sokovia. The little shit had even showed him up at being self-sacrificing as well…

After the mess with the Accords died down a bit and Steve was able to rescue the RAFT detainees, Clint had uprooted his family and brought them to Wakanda to stay with the rest of Cap's team. Cooper and Lila were having a blast growing up within the safety of T'Challa's base. Nathaniel was already walking, latching on to anyone who was willing to walk him around the lush gardens and grounds of the palace. For the first time in a long time, Clint felt like his life was taking a turn for the quieter.

He was laying in bed with Laura one morning, her fingers dancing across the area of his stomach where Dr. Cho had repaired him a few years ago. "You know….I can still feel the difference…" she teases, her lips brushing against his neck.

Clint can't help but chuckle, cradling her against his chest a little tighter. He sighs, feeling content despite it "I can always see if Dr. Cho can take it back...I'll just be bleeding out on the floor" he joked, getting a sharp jab in his ribs from Laura. She sits upright next to him, her weight on one arm as she looks down at him.

"You will do no such thing…." she says sternly, looking down at her very human Avenging husband.

"Yes, ma'am" he smiles up at her, tugging her down to crash his lips into her own. He pulls Laura on top of him, her legs moving to straddle his waist as her dark hair creates a curtain around their faces as they kiss. Clint lets his hands slide up her sides under her top, making Laura shiver and moan. His fingertips brush the underside of her breasts before they are loudly interrupted by Lila crashing into the room with a harried knock.

"Mom! Dad! Steve is here!" she announces happily, grabbing for her father's hand across the bed. "He brought Wanda with him!"

Clint feels his eager daughter dragging him to the side of the bed. Ever since they discovered that the young girl had a bit of a crush on the old soldier, everyone had started joking with them. He kissed Laura one last time before Lila peeled him away, dragging her dad into the common room of their apartment. He flinched at the bright sunlight, covering his eyes with his free hand when they walked into the room. Their apartment had floor to ceiling windows that looked out over the gardens of Wakanda - east facing so they got some of the greatest sunrises.

He felt Lila let go of his hand and found himself between the living room and kitchen, looking at Wanda and Steve standing by the kitchen island. Wanda's hand lit up bright red before a cup of coffee slowly slid down the counter toward him.

"Sorry to intrude on you so early, Clint" Cap started, watching the obviously tired archer take the first sip of his coffee.

"I hope we didn't interrupt anything…" Wanda teased as she watched Laura pad out of their bedroom after him, tying her dark hair up into a messy ponytail. Wanda had a knowing smirk on her face, accidentally getting a mental image of what Lila had stormed in on.

Clint held his hand up quickly, "Hey...No - none of that mind stuff….we've talked about this…" he scolds her, cutting off her progress before she got any further. Wanda held her hands up in apology, handing Laura another cup of coffee.

"Sorry Laura" Cap says, always the polite one. "We were trying to wait, but we had something come up that's time sensitive."

Clint watches his wife sigh deeply before taking her first sip of coffee. "I understand, Steve," she tells him honestly, giving Wanda a quick hug before walking back toward Clint. "Please be careful…" she whispers to him, giving him a tight hug. "Don't bring home any more strays…" she threatened him, looking over at Lila playing with a small monkey in the living room.

He flinches at her tone, remembering the unimpressed look on her face when he came back a few weeks ago with the small animal. T'Challa had assured him it would be a great companion for his kids, but he should have talked with Laura. "I know...I will" he says, kissing her quickly before looking over at Cap across the counter.

Laura walks over to Lila, grabbing the girl's hand as she grabs the little monkey's hand. "Let's go outside and watch the sunrise Kiddo."

Once his ladies left, Clint's focus turned solely on the early morning visitors to his temporary home. "So what did you find out…?"

"T'Challa's people found another Hydra base," Steve starts, nodding for Wanda to wave her hand as a digital display lights up on the counter between them. "It's outside of St. Petersburg - been dormant for years, but after Siberia it was activated again."

Wanda moves her hands and the map expands, zooming in on the warehouse. She swipes her hand, the image changing to show a handful of heat signatures. "From what Sgt. Barnes told us before he went back under, this was one of the bases where they kept him throughout his years with Hydra" she says, biting out the name like it's poison. Before Bucky had gone back into cryo, they had tried one session with Wanda digging through his brain to help dislodge the code words. Within 5 minutes of seeing his mind, Wanda had seen enough to make her hate Hydra more than she ever hated Tony Stark or Ultron. What they had done to Cap's friend was the most terrible thing she'd witnessed.

"T'Challa can't spare many of his soldiers with everything going on, but he's giving us a jet and supplies" Steve continues, trying to gauge the archer's feelings on the mission. "We think there may be files, notes or documents relating to the conditioning they did to Bucky that could help the scientists break the code. Sam is already checking the status of his new wings and Wanda - -"

"Stop right there, Cap" Clint interrupts, stepping over to look at the map more closely. His eyes are analyzing the surroundings of the warehouse, the exits and the windows. He spots a nice looking perch on a building across from it. He throws back the rest of his coffee, looking Cap dead in the eye, "When do we leave?"

"We are planning to leave at 10am - T'Challa's jet should get us to St. Petersburg by nightfall…"

"You might want to change out of your pajamas, Clint" Wanda teases, looking down at his very domesticated plaid boxers and shirt bearing his Hawkeye symbol. He follows her gaze, looking down at his attire.

"I can't just take on a Hydra base in this?" he jokes with a bright smile, turning to go back into his bedroom. "I'll meet you at the jet at 10" he says before disappearing. He can hear Wanda and Cap speaking in low tones followed by the clink of their coffee mugs in the sink. He stands in front of his closet, taking in his uniform - a few adjustments and moderations having been made by the Wakandan scientists at the base.

His calloused fingertips ran over the reinforced carbon fiber breastplate and the woven texture of the body suit to go underneath. The Wakandans wouldn't give him a Vibranium Woven suit like T'Challa's, but they definitely had the technology to give him something stronger than kevlar. All of the modifications were made to streamline his body defenses and add flexibility. Clint had to admit, these scientists did better upgrades than anything Tony had ever come up with.

After he showered, Clint put on his suit piece by piece, finishing with his empty quiver and bow on his back. He walked back toward the family room, following the laughs of his family. Before he walked out, he caught a glimpse of himself in the floor length mirror in his and Laura's room. "You are definitely getting too old for this…" he grumbles to himself.

Laura and the kids are sitting around the table eating breakfast and chatting away about their plans for the day. He finds himself standing there for a moment, looking at the beautiful picture it would be - his wife framed by the African sun as she chatted in broken english to their toddler son Nathaniel. He thought for a moment about Natasha, wondering how she was fairing in a world where the Avengers weren't together. He brushed that thought away, walking up behind Cooper, kissing his oldest son on the head.

"Alright kids, Dad has some work to do…" he says, stealing a piece of fruit from his plate before kissing Lila as well. "I'll be back by tomorrow afternoon. Be good for mom & King T'Challa." He leans down, kissing Nathaniel gently before locking his lips on Laura's for a moment. He can hear Lila snickering, watching her parents with a huge smile on her face.

"The quicker you leave, the quicker you come home," he hears her say, repeating something she had heard her mother say time and time again. He smiles brightly at his little girl before looking at Laura again, "I'll be careful, I promise...Besides, I've got to test out the new suit!" He does a dramatic little spin and dance as he walks toward the door, relishing in the chuckles he gets from his family. He waves one last time before starting the long walk down the loading bay.


	2. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer - Once again, I don't own anything Marvel related, but daggonnit I'm going to create a character to fit into their crazy super world!**

 **Word Count : 2,705**

 ****This chapter and the next chapter are going to be a bit violent - you've been warned!****

 **Chapter 1**

The Wakandan Royal Air Force didn't look like a typical American fleet of planes, filled with F-18s and C-130 carrier planes. They were all incredibly modern, streamlined, and built for stealth. It was shocking to Clint that such an advanced country had stayed out of the limelight for so many years, but over the last few months he was happy that they had. If Wakanda had more open relations with the large governments of the world, He, Wanda, Sam and Scott would have still been on the run from the world. That's not to say that they were free citizens, but behind the borders of Wakanda, no government could touch them. As soon as they left Wakandan air space they were fair game for anyone who wanted to try, which was another reason that missions were more dangerous in the Post-Sokovia Accords world.

Despite the team falling apart over who signed and who didn't, each member knew that they'd still protect the others. Clint knew about Cap's letter to Tony and his offer to help, which is why Clint decided to stay around Wakanda. If there was something Tony needed Avenging help with, he knew it would have to be bad & he didn't trust his teammates to include him if he went back to the farm house with his family. They'd leave him out, trying to protect the archer and his family, but getting left behind wasn't an option. At least, by staying with Cap and company, he'd be included in any future global apocalyptic events and hopefully be given the chance to protect his family and friends again.

He strolled up to the open jet, stopping at an ammunition table and stocking up his person with arrows, grenades and guns. The scientists here had made great strides in various types of arrows - exploding, stunning, gas releasing, tracking. He could name almost any kind of arrow and they had a version of it, but way more streamlined than anything SHIELD had ever come up with.

"What's up my bird brother!" Sam said, coming up behind Clint and starting to stock up his own suit. The Wakandans had added some fun bits to his wings, helping with their reflexes and dexterity. He spent days flying around the Royal Compound when he got them, diving and banking.

Clint shakes his head at the nickname, still high fiving the newer Avenger. "Come on, Sam...it's not..."

"Birds of a feather, stick together" Sam continues, his smile bright and sunny.

He rakes his palm down his face at the eager man's terrible joke, one Sam had already tried to make a thing on multiple occasions. "Where does your energy come from man?" he asks, rhetorically.

"Hah Hah!" Sam laughs loudly, drawing the attention of Cap and Wanda toward the munitions table. He grabs his last few supplies before walking toward the open jet.

They each take their seat, allowing the Wakandan pilot to start his preflight checks. On other missions, T'Challa had flown the plane himself, but since this was supposed to be an easy information extraction, they didn't require the Prince's assistance. Clint rested his against the back of his seat, letting his mind run over his technique for shooting, mentally preparing himself for sniper duty. Wanda was speaking quietly with Cap about Sgt. Barnes, telling him about what she'd seen this morning when she looked into the frozen Super Soldier's mind. Sam had somehow managed to fall asleep within minutes of the plane taking off.

As they approached the end of the flight, the 4 Avengers got out of their seats to look at the large strategy table in loading bay. The digital display showed a real time layout of the building, marking all of the heat signatures within 100 yards. They were expecting a handful of guards inside of the building, but when the screen lit up it showed a different story. Clint's eyebrows creased in worry, seeing a large number of signatures at the center of the building, with a handful of others fleeing the scene.

"Something is wrong, Cap…" he murmurs, taking in scene before them.

The pilot alerted them that they are hovering over the drop zone and Clint watched Wanda's eyes close in concentration. "They are shutting down the base...there's an emergency alert...Containment Breach…" she says, opening her eyes and looking at the 3 men across from her.

"How much information did T'Challa have on this building?" Sam asks gruffly, looking at the digital read out. "Are we walking into more Winter Soldiers down there, cause -I don't know about you guys, but I don't feel like fighting Winter Soldiers today...I just got these wings" he grumbles, looking down at his new pack.

"The intel said it was storage facility, cold storage for files and documents in climate controlled rooms…" Cap recites, having memorized the brief. "There must be something they missed…"

Clin looks at the building again, his eyes looking at his safe perch across the way, understanding that with these new developments he was going to have to go into the fray with his teammates. "Well, we better get down there before they destroy the evidence…." he says, attaching a hook to his belt and dropping down the open door of the jet.

He takes a deep calming breath as he descends from the plane, feeling the cool night air of Russia biting at his cheeks. He lands easily on the room in a crouch, using his bow to take out 3 guards on the roof silently, their bodies barely making noise as they crumble. "Roof is clear" he says into his comms, looking for the rooftop entrypoint he saw on the read out.

As he approaches the door, he hears Cap and Wanda land silently on the roof behind him, the quiet whirring of Sam's wings meaning he had glided down as well. The small team begins clearing the levels of the building, meeting little resistance on the top floors. Cap and Wanda hang back on the second level, going through a few rooms that held file boxes and cabinets. Wanda was working on copying all of the hard drives onto a special-made Wakandan Drive that had enough space for all the encrypted material.

Sam and Clint continued down into the center of the building, into the basement where many of the heat signatures had been congregated. Clint paused outside of a heavy, iron blast door, peeking into the small window but seeing nothing. "D'Basa…" he says into his comm, waiting for the pilot to respond.

"Go for D'Basa…"

"I need an up-to-date heat map of the building…" Clint says, looking at his wrist where the image should appear.

"Coming to you, Hawkeye" D'Basa says, transmitting the updated imagery to his team.

A digital building appears, Sam and Clint both looking at it. They stare for a second, trying to take in what they are seeing. "There's only 4...maybe 5 heat signatures left in building, Cap," he reports into his comm.

Cap crackles back immediately, "Go again, Hawkeye? Did you say there's no one left but us?"

Sam answers instead of Clint , "We're looking at the map, Cap - there are faint signatures left behind the blast door, but so far it looks like it's just us."

"Copy that, still check it out. I don't want to leave anything to chance," Cap instructs.

Clint takes 3 charges from his belt, stepping up to the heavy iron door with laser precision. He places the 3 pods along the exposed hinges, walking back down the hall and around the corner. Sam follows, extending his wings as the 3 charges explode, the door falling to the cement floor with a loung thunk.

The two men approach the opening cautiously, Sam with his guns raised and Clint staring down the shaft of an arrow at the ready. They step over some rubble, taking in the scene of the room before them.

Along the wall, there are 10 cryo pods, very similar to the ones in Siberia. They only knew what they looked like from the files that were collected after the disaster of the Accords. Sam took the right flank, walking closer to the pods. As he went, he had to step over 6 Hydra guards, all bleeding out on the floor. He looks up at the pod closest to him, noting the small hole in the glass where cool gas was billowing out like steam. He brushed his hand over the glass, feeling the frost slide away, causing him to gasp and step back, almost tripping over another guard.

"Sam?! You okay?!" Clint shouts, turning to face his partner who just crashed into the console at the center of the room. He looked like he'd been burned by what he saw in the pod. Clint started to round the curve of the room, noticing that the pod closest to him was open. "Sam - what's going on?"

"It's kids, man…" Sam says over his comms, stepping back up toward the pod. Inside, he can see the serene face of what looks like a boy in his late teens. If it weren't for the ugly red hole between his eyes, Sam would have thought he was sleeping. The Falcon shivered, moving to the pod next to it, wiping away the frost of the glass. In the next one, a girl with a similar bullet wound in her forehead. He clicked his teeth, "Looks like Hydra was getting creative with their experiments. They eliminated all of the ones down here" he says sadly, looking over at Clint.

Instead of focusing on his partner, Clint's eyes are fixated on the open pod in front of him. "Looks like one got out…." he alerts, his hackles rising as he moves his bow back into position. He scans the room looking for anything out of place. He clocks about 15 bodies strewn about the lab, all men in Hydra uniforms or lab coats. He sees Sam starting to patrol back through the lab, minding his footsteps through the bodies.

"Copy - we're on our way" Cap's voice crackles into their ear pieces again.

Clint steps over another lab coat, turning to check behind a desk at the far side of the room, a desk that had a large swipe of blood leading around it. He stands on the side, taking a deep breath to brace himself as he turns the corner of the desk pointing his bow. He freezes…

"Clint...Clint, you okay?" he can hear Sam asking him, but his eyes are focused as his bow lowers and he puts the arrow back into his quiver. He hears Sam come up next to him, looking down at the figure huddled behind the desk.

They are both looking at a young woman, no older than 20 laying against the wall. Her fit body is shivering, her chest rising and falling erratically. She's caucasian from what they can tell, though most of her is covered in blood. Clint kneels down, feeling her neck gently to make sure she's got a pulse. He can feel the steady beats, but gets worried when he takes in a particularly deep gash on her forehead.

"Jeeze, Sam -she's freezing…" he says, reaching down to tug the girl out of her confined hiding space. He reaches for a rough wool blanket on a shelf nearby, wrapping it around her shoulders as her head lolls to the side, resting on Clint's shoulder. His eyes look down her body, taking in the rest of her appearance. She's wearing a black sports bra and small black shorts, the uniform matching the trainees in their pods. She's so covered in blood that he has trouble figuring out what is hers and what isn't.

Sam kneels behind him, as Clint palpates the young woman as best he can. The Falcon lowered his weapons when he saw Cap and Wanda stumble into the room, both taken aback by the bloody scene they find. Sam walks up to Cap, giving him a brief report from what he can tell. "It looks like they tried to eliminate them," he states, "Best we can guess is, somehow, one got out."

Wanda rushes through the massacre, sliding down next to Clint, helping him apply pressure to a bullet wound in her thigh. "This girl did all this?" she asks no one in particular, her hand brushing the light brown hair from the girl's forehead.

"Cap, she's losing a lot of blood" Clint says, his voice tight with worry. "I can't tell underneath it all where it's coming from….we have to get her back to the jet."

"No - we don't have to get her back to the jet. Come on, Man - that kid is a baby Hydra Operative who took out 15 guards on her own…" Sam starts, having flashbacks to when Bucky had been under Hydra's control and had torn his wings and thrown him off of a helicarrier in D.C.

"She could have been Bucky" Cap tells him and Sam immediately shuts up, seeing the error of his ways. The kid could be a lethal assassin, but until they could talk to her, they had no idea if she was with Hydra of her own free will or if she'd been taken. Sam had the good conscious to look ashamed for a moment, watching Cap stalk over to his teammates huddled around the girl.

He goes down onto one knee, harnessing his shield on his back as he scoops up the young woman. She barely feels like she weighs 100 lbs as he carries her out of the room and away from the bloodshed. He can feel what Clint meant, her blood seeping into his suit from somewhere on her person. Wanda quickly downloaded the files from the open pod and the control console at the center of the room before she left Clint and Sam to place various charges throughout the room.

Clint didn't leave before he placed his hand on each of the closed pods, saying a silent prayer for the young lives thrown away by Hydra. They may have been made to do terrible things, but no one deserved to die in their sleep. He looked back at the room once more before disappearing up the stairs behind his comrades. They loaded into the jet silently, Wanda depositing their intelligence findings before moving to help with the girl.

D'Basa set the plane on a course for home and they were off. They were easily 10 miles away before they heard radio chatter of a warehouse fire in the storage district of St. Petersburg. Clint knelt next to the bench they laid the girl on, watching Cap wrap her thigh in a tight bandage.

"Sit her up, Clint" he orders.

Clint lifts her torso up, his hands coming away bright red, his eyes focusing on her back, "Damnit Cap, her back is a mess…." he curses.

Steve looks at her back, seeing a series of deep cuts across her shoulders and sides, "Language, Clint…." he scolds before taking gauze from Wanda and pressing it against the wounds. "That's the best we can do for now...we have to hope she makes it back to Wakanda…"

Clint sits down next to her on the floor, "I've got her Cap" he says, letting the Star Spangled man know he can go sit for the duration of the flight. He takes an extra alcohol wipe, choosing to start brushing the blood away from her skin. He thinks for a moment, _What if this was Lila?_ He flinches at the thought, feeling Wanda's red magic pushing at his mind. He looks over at her, her eyes filled with worry.

"Don't think like that…" she tells him, "That would never happen."

He gives her a terse smile as he focuses on the girl again. He lifts her right wrist to wipe at her bruised and bloody knuckles, reading a hospital style bracelet wrapped there. He recognizes a few of the Cyrillic letters, unable to get much past the Russian word for the number 8.

"Vosem…" he whispers, remembering the word from Natasha's early days with SHIELD. She had tried to teach him Russian, but he found the language harsh in his mouth. "We've got ya now Kid…"


End file.
